MmMYC Represented at the USVMYG Nationals
The US Vintage Model Yacht Group held this year’s national regatta in Honey Brook, PA. Over 32 skippers, with over 66Skipjack’s, Schooner’s, Vintage Marblehead’s (VM) and Vintage 36’s (V36) showed up to compete.
Cliff Martin, Herb Dreher, Rick Gates and Rick Laird attended, competing in the VM and V36 classes. Jim Linville attendedbut had mechanical issues in his Schooner and V36 that prevented him from sailing those classes. He ultimately withdrew from the VM class because the course was very spread out and too much for him to see the marks or walk the course. I also competed in the Schooner Class with a new boat, but the oversized jib I copied just didn’t work, at all, in the 3-mph wind. Now, I don’t want to talk about it anymore.
The V36 class had 19 competitors and was sailed over two ½-days, with a day in between. I must say what a difference a day makes. Herb and I were sailing Comet-36’s, Rick G. was sailinghis newer find, a Peterson Double Ender and Rick L. was sailing a Starlett.
The first day was calm with 3 gusting to 4 mph winds and everybody was challenged to keep their boats moving in the lighter breezes. Herbs and my Comet’s sailed well on ½ day oneand we looked forward to ½ day two.
However, ½ day two was blustery with 10 mph winds and everyone was challenged to keep control of their boats in the gusts. As it turned out, the tuning on my Comet was notadequate for the winds and I struggled with control to windward(tuning during the race was not possible). Herb’s Comet, on the other hand, seemed quite at home in the wind and at the end of the day Herb got 1st, I got 4th (missed 3rd by one point), Rick G.was 13th and Rick L. was 17th.
The VM class had over 22 boats and included Traditional, High Flyer and Classic designs. This class was also sailed over two ½-days and the wind was healthy at 8-10 mph on both days. These bigger boats were very happy. Herb was sailing his High Flyer-Sun Wind and I was sailing my High Flyer-Magic Dragon I. Rick G. was sailing another new find, his great looking but unknown Traditional design and Rick L. was sailing his Traditional Madcap.
The High Flyer and Classic fleets tend to be a little faster on some points of sail, so on ½ day one they started 1-minute ahead of the Traditional fleet. On ½ day two the fleets all started together. Fast or not, sailing in and through fleets of this size is always a challenge. As you can imagine, staying on the wind and out of trouble can be difficult at the starts and around marks.
In the end, I got 1st place and Herb got 2nd in the High Flyer division. Rick L. got 4nd and Rick G. got 11th place in the Traditional division.
I know Jim would rather have sailed, but he had fun watching, critiquing, and visiting with his many friends. I have to admit, on the blustery day, with my V36 struggling, I wanted to be him.
It was an intense few days’, but fun and I think our club represented well.
Cliff Martin
Author Note: There may have been more action with Rick Gates and Rick Laird, but I just couldn’t watch them very much and sail.
VM racing with Cliff (1040) & Herb (96) rounding the weather offset mark. 
VM racing with Herb (96) and Rick Laird (32) running down the course. 
VM racing with Rick Gates (122) reaching for a mark. 
V36 racing with Herb (42) and Cliff (34) reaching to the next mark. 
V36 racing with Rick Gates (1) and Rick Laird (32) reaching for the next mark.